Mirroring a trend seen nationally in recent years, University Police say their officers have been dealing more frequently with drug cases, particularly those involving marijuana.

“Within the past two to three years, we’ve devoted more effort, more personnel and more resources toward investigating drug cases,” University Police Lt. David Sprick said.

Current campus police statistics show there were six residence hall drug violations in March, compared with 10 in February and seven in January. Statistics for April are not available yet.

The majority of drug cases in the residence halls involve marijuana, Sprick said.

Police, however, don’t know everything about drug activity in the dorms, Sprick said. Through more frequent and thorough investigations, University Police hope to continue to identify students responsible for selling and using drugs, he said.

Officers also hope to cooperate with other law enforcement agencies, including Eau Claire police, Sprick said.

“We’ve been able to (investigate cases more thoroughly) without hiring additional personnel,” he said.

Other than the ongoing drug trend, little has changed in terms of crime or violations on campus during the 2002-03 school year.

“It’s probably (been) business as usual,” Sprick said.

Business as usual, though, is anything but calm for the police department, which employs six full-time and three part-time officers.

As always, binge drinking and underage alcohol consumption are issues police have been dealing with, Sprick said.

“I think we’re part of a campus-wide initiative to address binge drinking (and) high-risk behavior,” he said. “We’re sort of in the intervention business for high-risk behavior.”

University Police work closely with RAs and residence hall directors to combat underage drinking, Sprick said.

While the relationship that exists between RAs and campus police is important, the majority of underage drinking situations occur in the halls themselves and are not dealt with by police, Bridgman Hall Director Jennifer Lee said.

Hall directors and RAs only call police in special circumstances, such as detox situations or when inebriated residents don’t cooperate, Lee said.

Freshman Molly Chambers said she hasn’t dealt with University Police personally, but has noticed their presence on campus.

“(There are) definitely enough police,” she said. “Maybe too many. (But) I feel completely safe on campus